Schlumberger brothers

Emile Henry Marcel Schlumberger
Emile Henry Marcel Schlumberger
Born	21 June 1884; École des Mines de Paris

Conrad Schlumberger
Conrad Schlumberger
Born	2 October 1878; École des Mines de Paris

Conrad Schlumberger (2 October 1878 in

Alsace-Lorraine, France, then a part of the German Empire. Their inventions in the area of geophysics and well logging were the beginnings of Schlumberger Well Services

and the entire well logging industry.

Life and work

Conrad and Marcel were two of six children of an affluent Alsatian

École Polytechnique in 1900, whereas Marcel graduated from École Centrale Paris

in 1907.

Conrad initially worked as a mining engineer at

Schlumberger array

."

In 1923, the brothers began conducting geophysical surveys in various countries including Romania, Serbia, Canada,

resistivity information from deeper formations would increase the effectiveness of the surface prospecting technique. The first office was in Paris

on the rue Fabert.

On 5 September 1927, Henri George Doll and several field engineers ran the first wireline

well log

" was coined a few years later in the United States.

At that time,

dollars) per month. This was the first well logging

program.

The Schlumberger company then tried to expand their activities to many other countries, but the attempts were hindered by the

Houston, Texas. Conrad was the chairman, and Marcel was the president. In 1936, Conrad died of a heart attack while returning from a business trip to the Soviet Union. During the German occupation of France, the company headquarters was moved from Paris to Houston. Marcel died in 1953. After World War II, Marcel's son Pierre Schlumberger took over the American company. Pierre Schlumberger's second wife was the eccentric São Schlumberger

, who was for some years the biggest individual customer of haute couture clothing.

In 1955, in recognition of Conrad Schlumberger's outstanding contribution to exploration geophysics, The European Association of Exploration Geophysicists (now European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) established a Conrad Schlumberger Award. Each year the Award is presented to a member of the Association who has made an outstanding contribution over a period of time to the scientific and technical advancement of the geosciences, particularly geophysics. Notable recipients of the award include Nigel Anstey, Les Hatton and Michael Schoenberg, among others.

Marcel Schlumberger's great-great-granddaughter is actress Léa Seydoux on her father's side, and she is a great-granddaughter of Marcel's brother Maurice on her mother's side.

References

Allaud, Louis A., and Martin, Maurice H., 1977, Schlumberger, the history of a technique, John Wiley and Sons, New York. 333 p.
ISBN 978-0-471-01667-0

Hilchie, Douglas W., 1990, Wireline, a history of the well logging and perforating business in the oil fields, Privately published, Boulder, Colorado, 200 pp.

Schlumberger, Anne Gruner, 1982, The Schlumberger adventure, ARCO Publishing Inc., New York, 152 p.
ISBN 978-0-668-05644-1